As she lay turning and twisting on the bed, her mana flaring as memories of that dreadful day replayed all over again in her dreams, the eyes of that monster meeting with hers directly right before his power consumed her world as she knew it.....she awoke with a start and sat up.
It was an unfamiliar ceiling, an unfamiliar scent and an unfamiliar bed with no warmth, just the one familiar feeling of abject loneliness that had come to be companion through it all. In essence, she wasn't home and that realization once again caused the tears to roll freely down her cheeks, it was like a ritual she carried out every morning of every day, the one pain she could never get used to, harden herself against even as it continuously consumed her. And this small surviving bit in a twisted sense served as both her greatest burden and her only joy, because what would she be if she lost even that as well.
Minutes later after collecting herself properly Isla took a proper look around the room to see her companion was absent, it came as no surprise but there was an open portal just left in the middle of the room and she soon came across a note on the table next to her bed.
=That's two days asleep just so you know.
=Your bath has been set, I accept no arguments, just step into the portal.
=Also, do not bother trying to leave until you fulfill the conditions written on this piece of parchment.
=The room is warded by my magic.
=I shall be returning soon, have fun ༻
The note burned to nothing right as she finished reading it leaving behind a magic circle that stayed a moment before fading away as well and Isla could do nothing but sigh, being taken prisoner first thing in the morning was not something she expected but here we are.
With barely any choice left she complied and got up from the bed, having slept in her undergarments last night there wasn't much on her so they were quickly discarded and she stepped into the portal. What stood before her was a world of brightest night and waiting a distance away in most freeing open space guarded by mountainous rocky formations was a bath more than worthy of being called a lake as it was one in truth however repurposed, but most peculiar was the fact it shone with a beautiful hue of gold and running from it in different directions over the mountains were visible ley lines bearing a golden pulse that periodically rippled over and across the ground beneath her feet like a heartbeat.
An obvious thing Isla discerned from this was the bath not being ordinary or even above average, now what it was meant to do so is something she could only find out after experiencing it which she obliged to and climbed down the stairs leading into it before letting herself drift freely along. Soon multiple golden strands of silk began wrapping itself over her form and sinking deep into every corner of her being until she was encased in a cocoon both in body and in spirit, when it was done an insignia crimson in it's hue and resembling the shape of an arachnid appeared over her head.
And for a moment there was calm, no signs of any changes occuring as she kept drifting peacefully along. But as time passed the crimson began spreading further and further until it spilled over into the waters, then came an ear piercing shriek as agony like never before wreaked across her body causing violent convulsions and turns as the threads turned searing hot injecting a peculiar power into her being that felt like lava running through every atom of her existence.
Her cocooned form slowly rose up into the air and a moment later Isla began bleeding from every pore she had like a fountain dyeing a greater portion of the waters in it's colors, but soon it began changing into the deep hue of a foul black almost like hot tar and it continued spilling out of her waves with seemingly no end in sight as it overtook the entire bath and just then it stopped
The ley lines pulsed with an energy like never before in response to the new phenomenon of a giant crack that appeared high above bringing with it a golden pillar of flames that descended upon the waters burning away all it's impurities in but an instant and with a shout a new light of crimson shot up into the skies mixing with the flames into a most beautiful dance of colors as the cocoon around her began breaking to bits to unveil her new form.
A hair like the purest strands of silvery silk cascading all the way down, a skin of ashy gray, her clawed feet were scorched black and her chitinous armored shell a chalky white with crimson ancient patterns of inheritance running down the sides of her legs, body and arms over her wrists like a tattooed bracelet, she bore two pairs of clawed arms with each finger darkened down to their roots and from her back sprung another double pair of crimson red arachnid limbs bearing a metallic lustre with a serrated spear-like tip.
On her face were three pairs of eyes each with no pupil as only a black emptiness could be seen and felt, her venomous fangs which peeked under her lips had begun receding to an inconspicuous state and starting right from the center of her chest downwards were three dark orbs each smaller than the last.
She could feel it, power beyond anything she ever had, enough to rival and surpass a 3rd circle mage at the peak of his powers in this state, but most especially it was what lay within those orbs embedded in her. Isla has been given three sacrifices, activating each one allowed a substantial jump in her strength and with all three she was looking at the mind boggling possibility that she could take on a 6th circle mage at any stage, at least an average one incapable of skipping beyond like she could.
It wasn't something she had come to terms with just yet, was this really the heritage of her bloodline passed down through her ancestors? Isla has never once believed herself a genius even when the dark mages who took her in touted her as a special one and promised power greater than what she knew.
But, had they ever given her what they promised? The answer without a doubt was yes, the only confusion she had now was why they knew nothing of this even with the amount of times they had taken her blood and ran all sorts of tests, fed her so much concoctions it could probably fill an entire river, if they had then she wouldn't be as helpless against that monster even if victory still remained out of reach, but she could have done more, she could have done so much more with this power and what they had given her, just enough to feel the burden in her heart weigh a little less, to not be overcome with this feeling of being nothing but an abject failure who could not achieve a single thing in all that she had set out to accomplish, most of all that like she hadn't made them proud and perhaps did not love them as much as she believed.
And perhaps there was a truth to be found in there, in the midst of her desperate desire to throw away her life with his in tow she had forgotten the one single caveat even if that plan were to have succeeded, full restoration was a guaranteed event which had rendered her plans pointless in the end. But something tugged at her subconscious, a doubt on if she had truly forgotten such a crucial detail, was she really still clinging on to life despite her dearest wish to meet them all again on the other side in the most glorious of ways.
In her sorrows she adopted a fetal position in the air, her arachnid limbs furling around her form like a blanket of invisible wings, cold to the touch and yet her only reminding warmth in all that she felt.
"You know, this was way more of a joyous scenario in my head when I imagined it".
"Awakenings were always a most monumental event after all".
In an ironic way Isla couldn't help but chuckle hearing the voice of Elias within her head, that cocky persistence now becoming what pulled her out of her own drowning mind, it elicited another chuckle from her again.
"I do thank you at least for unlocking my heritage" she replied out loud though knowing he was not physically present.
"Have you returned?".
He gave a hum of denial "your emotions were simply too loud to ignore and this space is mine after all".
"I see".
Elias sighed as he watched her levitate towards the portal now that his conditions had been met, a short while ago he came to be aware that the lock he had placed on her nightmares to keep them at bay had failed which was a bit surprising to say the least, it was like she wanted, no, needed those events to keep persisting over and over again inside her dreams.
But it also confirmed to him that directly attempting to brainwash Isla would have been a very risky idea, he had no real information on what 'Perfect hatred' truly was capable of doing, there was 'Overwhelming hatred' which was well detailed in it's devastating effects that it could accomplish both to the world and to the one bearing it's might and more, his aunt had almost become the bearer of such a thing in the past to which none could ever dare imagine how much worse things could have truly become but the former was a myth, a theory and only something that existed as a saying until now, to his knowledge Isla would be the first to have achieved such a thing and in a way it was all because of him, divine beings really do bring about new phenomenons whether intentionally or not, pretty amazing might he add.
Nonetheless what he had been most excited for in his reasons leading to him entailing Aine's help in order to create this space didn't come to be which confirmed to him at least that she would be needing a second awakening for her to achieve it. Those dark mages in their tinkering and experiments had actually created something useful, he contemplated informing her about those thoughts being correct, without a doubt those guys had discovered her heritage and understood Isla to be far more special than they originally believed and rather than awaken it, they had drawn from it and suppressed it even further with a myriad of concoctions for their research, Isla had little idea just how much she was needed for the successful completion of that staff, how much of it was modelled off of her.
And when thinking about it now, there exists no one person with a natural Domain whom they could dare approach, most were generations older than the current Tower master and they could not even hope to catch the younger few early enough because by the time anyone would come to know it was already too late, the current Tower master who also was a part of this number had always been the first to find them and every last one of these monsters who were quite countable exist under surveillance which included his family as well as his peers.
So truly, Isla had absolutely no idea just how valuable she was to the creation of that staff but in search of a endless sea of fakes the dark mages discarded the one genuine thing they had created, he was pretty sure that their thought process went in the direction of thinking they had all the time in the world to keep perfecting their craft to get as close to the real thing with the help of everything they had squeezed out from her.
Even he himself had underestimated her greatly at the start, but the blood running through her veins does speak for itself now and all that remained was the final step for which he would soon begin making preparations.
Once outside the portal Isla was met with met a nice pair of clothes and innerwear laid neatly atop the bed with a note attached to it, not even bothering to read because she could already guess what it said she went ahead and put them on because the alternative was probably having it get teleported onto her or something of the sort.
Now with all conditions fulfilled she opened the door and began heading down the stairs, even so early it was packed nearly full with customers but that was no concern of hers as she simply walked towards the taverns exit, paying no mind to the manager who tried calling out to her. Isla paused once outside, taking a moment to look at her surroundings spotting the beast that odd guy had ridden grazing on some pasture and hanging on it's horns was a note.
"No".
This time without even bothering to spare a second glance at it she simply turned on her heels and continued on her journey, but a few steps in she began growing apprehensive because nothing was happening, no conditions or restrictions was being imposed. Or was she already in some sort of illusion from the moment she refused? Isla almost couldn't believe that this was something she was worrying about right now but who could blame her, ever since she awoke that odd guy had kept her prisoner and seemed to be playing a new game all of a sudden.
Wanting to test things a little more she kept walking for a few minutes after but at some point completely halted in her tracks after thinking of the most absurd possibility, what if just right as she was approaching her destination whatever that guy must have kept dormant activates and just pulled back to the beast, could it really be something that cruel?
Isla had no answer to that, but as of right now she simply made the self respecting choice and turned back to the tavern whilst silently cursing that guy in her mind. Now standing before the beast once more, she took the note from it's horns to read out what that guy had written and it's contents left her quite speechless.
=Aha! Good choice, have a safe journey.
=I'll meet you on the way there.
That bastard had played her and she fell for it hook, line and sinker. It was looking quite possible that there might not have been a trap at all, or at least the lack of a trap was the trap.
"I might really strangle him one day" she muttered to herself as the note crumpled to ash and blew away with the wind, eyeing the impressively large frame of the oblivious animal before her grazing joyfully without a lick of worry in the world whatsoever and earning a tint of envy from the Jorōgumo.
The beast bellowed and huffed out a huge air of hot steam from it's nostrils as she climbed onto it's wide back, settling into the saddle which was practically just a round mattress with high enough side guards and overhead blinds.
'Heavens!' she exclaimed internally upon feeling the exorbitant luxury her body had just experienced as she laid down, it was....otherworldly, like all the stress piled up over the span of her existence just vanished entirely, a soothing feeling just continuously washed over her in waves as she let out an involuntary sigh of the purest relief. And soon without any need for instructions from her the beast began on its way, clouds of steam accumulating around it's hooves as it took of into the air journeying across the lands until nightfall and onwards.
-[Next day back at the school]-
It was the beginning of a new week and within all expectations it had taken up to two days for every participant of that fight to awaken with Ishmael reforming into the world near the very end of the second day, luckily for him still it was just a weekend spent so he would not missing any one of his favorite classes.
And although the duo did not get to request the World's help like they had wanted, instead choosing to postpone until all their peers were present so it could be a one and done deal which was why they had settled on today to have their gathering but were beaten to the punch by someone whom they'd never expect to call for such a thing, Hope.
The haste at which they had answered that summon could not be described, it was like being the first to have ever witnessed pigs fly. And there they sat watching like a hawk as the woman of the hour stood before them poised with an air of regality and a warm smile on her face.
"Do you really have to look so starstruck".
"Feels a bit exaggerated, this was bound to happen the way I see it".
"I can't exactly avoid you for long, we have eternity to spend you know" she laughed a bit at the end there but this only served to make them even more dumbfounded to the point that even Velkos nearly let his mask slip.
Seeing this she simply heaved a sigh and smiled "fine".
"I am sorry for being so distant and cold to all of you".
"Now I aim to rectify that so.....".
They waited and the seconds passed but the last part never came, in fact she came to adopt a small look of confusion on why they looked at her like so and the longer time passed the more awkward the silence became.
At this Noctis could only just sigh having understood the situation at hand, Hope's words ended at the apology, the next in her own way of communication was an open sentence awaiting their verdict on if they accepted it or not but instead they had correctly misunderstood it as her still having something more to say as is normal and now she was in danger of losing the goodwill she just bought if they misunderstand any further than this meaning he had to salvage this quickly.
'Was this my predecessor's job up there as well in the past I wonder' - the gut feeling almost like a muscle memory telling him he needed to solve this already answered that question for him.
'Boy, it really couldn't have been easy at all huh'.
Giving a small round of applause in his head in acknowledgement to the goddess's woes in dealing with such a crowd of blockheads and for so long he finally stood up to mediate. At his explanations things were level once more as they came to understand the meaning behind her words and their reply required no mulling over, she was fully accepted as a true friend into their circle and from here on out Hope could begin making sure that they both viewed and accepted her as a dependable leader.
Now that they had gotten this over with, Avistro interjected and proposed another meeting as he had originally intended at the end of the day to share some important discoveries with them and perhaps undertake a short excursion as well by the World's assistance, they agreed and began dispersing on their way to attend classes.
The sole exclusion of today's gathering namely Emrys was absent not because he had thought it pointless but for an entirely different reason he and Hope under the witness of Noctis had discussed a short time before the meeting had taken place...
[An hour ago].
"Our situation is different, we both know this".
"This is between you and your subjects".
"As the anomaly I have no real place in that gathering, not yet at least".
"Besides, our relationship needs no amends".
"We are simply two beings with an understanding and a mutual acknowledgement of one another".
"Time will tell how we progress from there".
Hope understood and did agree wholeheartedly with his statement, though it may not be known to the rest of them yet but the mark she bore as ruler did grant a few special privileges over her subjects and a specific sense that was entirely absent with him. She had never once used the mark of course, it existed in a dormant state always and she had no plans to ever use at least one half of it's functions with the path she planned to undertake now, the other half was something that could be used to serve a great benefit to both her subjects and herself but only if the situation ever called for it.
[Meanwhile]
Far away elsewhere in an Island on the other side of world lay a peculiar object of magic, shadowy black gates standing between two worlds positioned in a semi-circular formation, one half was the natural world untouched as it was and full of life and the other a secret was a land of grey and vibrant colors occuring periodically like splotches of nature over the realms fabric itself guarded by monstrosities of all kinds, corrupted and twisted flying or moving about as it's guardians.
In that realm was a floating city high in the skies of endless night towering directly over the mass of a White Dwarf Star and in that city was a giant tower of glass with seemingly no end to the heights it stretched, going far beyond the stars in the night sky until it reached the unseen barrier over this small world.
And right now in that tower's very own smaller world was a fear like never before spreading through it's inhabitants, a portion of which who stood a good distance away around a giant sphere of an obsidian like metal with thousands of runes drawn atop it and hundreds more intertwined magic seals revolving about it yet even with such extreme measures of suppression an undeniably monstrous dark mana poured out in waves making it almost difficult to exist in it's presence had it not been for the wards of protection saving not just them but this entire realm from the fate of extinction.
But contrary to what it may look like on the surface, whatever was in there wasn't the source of their current terror, not even close.
Separated from the group and closer to the sphere than anyone else was a single man with one hand behind his back, standing nearly 2 meters tall and dressed in golden patterned hooded dark robes, a hair like the setting Sun and reaching just below his shoulders in length, his face a picture of serene calm even in the raging storm all around him and mountains of pressure weighing down on his being, leafy green eyes that just seemed to naturally radiate endless life yet overpowered by an even stronger sense of despair that looked ready to swallow the world whole and itself along with it.
"Lord Hilderith, what....have we done" one brave soul stepped a little forward and asked, his eyes held both the greatest fear and reverence as he stared at the man before him yet looking not at him but something far beyond, beyond the figure who had always stood tall and imposing, the unshakable mountain in his beliefs, a universal truth for all who stood here today with him and yet on this day never has this very same man looked so terribly....small.
Because in the end they had forgotten something primal in the hearts of all beings, never incur the Tower master's wrath. From the very first day they began on this endeavor, the leeways given that had reinforced they were protected from that ever present and ever watching being, that their crusade was backed by Fate itself and meant to succeed no matter what that, the end goal did not matter, what did was that he could not be allowed to steer this journey another way or cut it short like he had done to so many others.
They had become one of the very few events in history that man could not touch just yet and oh how they abused that protection, now was the horrifying realization that they might have just sold that privilege with what they had achieved here today.
Hilderith closed his eyes and heaved a heavy breath of air, taking in all of his surroundings through his senses, absorbing the weight of the silence hanging in the air, thinking not of the future but the past, the sacrifices it took to get here, the dearest of things that he had given knowing he could never get them back. And when he was done his eyes sprang open finding new light within them, this was really it.
"Our Destiny".
"That, is what we have created".
He got down on one knee with the rest following his lead and their heads bowed before the sphere, the Hymns of War had been sung and swarming high above this space were thousands upon thousands of the very same prototype artifact Isla had been given, each a little closer to completion than the last.
EnD.